Chatbots—Just What the Doctor Ordered

Earlier this year, Florence was nothing more than a hobbyist’s development project, and the chatbot was used as a simple symptom checker. Just months later, Florence has evolved into an automated personal health assistant that helps more than 2,000 people every day with the ability to offer compliance reminders, provide additional medication facts, and even explain what to do in the event that a user misses a dose.

This example is just one of many in which chatbots are coming to the rescue in the healthcare industry, and the timing couldn’t be better. According to a recent study from Juniper Research, the annual cost savings derived from the adoption of chatbots in healthcare will climb 320 percent year over year, finally reaching $3.6 billion globally by 2022—at a time when the industry is desperate to find practical cost-saving measures.

Of course, doctors aren’t worried about losing their jobs to chatbots, but that doesn’t mean the role they play will be insignificant. Chatbots will fill a number of functions that will range from automated appointment scheduling and payer assistance, to more complex initiatives like controlling the spread of viral illnesses.

That said, healthcare organizations may not necessarily be able to move forward with a chatbot policy on their own. It can be difficult to build, deploy and manage a chatbot without help from an experienced partner. To learn about how we can support your organization with its chatbot strategy, click here.